1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an authentication apparatus, an authentication method, a registration apparatus and a registration method, which are suitable for use in biometric authentication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems are known, in which the data representing the entrance and exit of persons to and from a certain place is stored in a memory. The data may be retrieved from the memory in order to determine whether a person who has just input the data item identical to any data item registered in the memory is indeed registered in the system. In this case, so-called “1:N authentication” is performed, whereby the data item input and concerning the person is collated with the data items stored in the memory.
Authentication apparatuses of such a type have been proposed. (refer to, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-215883). Any authentication apparatus of this type generates a converted registration image of low-resolution image and a converted collation image of low-resolution from registration images and collation images of a person to be authenticated. The authentication apparatus then determines whether a registration image that is the source of a preset number of converted registration images that have high degree of correlation with the converted collation image represents any person registered in the apparatus, from the result of collation between the registration images and the image of the person to authenticate.